Category: Kids – All Ages

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Bunny vs Monkey book 8: The Impossible Pig!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-300-4 (Digest HB)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the hairy backbone of The Phoenix since the very first issue back in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal arch-enemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands.

Concocted with gleefully gentle mania by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember), his trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest editions such as this one.

All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in the wake of a disastrous British space shot. Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite all efforts from reasonable, sensible, genteel, contemplative forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this day remains a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating, troublemaking lout…

Problems are exacerbated by other unconventional Crinkle creatures, particularly the skunk called Skunky who has a mad scientist’s intellect and attitude to life plus a propensity for building extremely dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons…

Here – with artistic assistance from design deputy Sammy Borras – the war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes even though everybody thought all the battles had ended. They even seemingly forgot the ever-encroaching Hyoomanz…

Divided into seasonal outbursts, this magnificent hardback archive of insanity opens in the traditional manner: starting slowly with a sudden realisation. Probably by using his fingers, Monkey has worked out that Bunny’s side has more good guys (Ai, Pig Piggerton, Weenie, Metal E.V.E. and Le Fox) than his own bad ones! Wisely rejecting Skunky’s offer to make more evildoers, the sinisterly stupid simian seeks to steal some of Bunny’s buddies: making insidious individual approaches in ‘A Big Hole’.

One immediate success goes unnoticed as those worthy stalwarts debate ways to get hapless Pig out of a giant pit before finding the ‘Tunnels’ the sweet simpleton used to get there in the first place…

First contact and a really strange day for all – including a wholly new kind of Crinkle critter – occurs in ‘Jerb-eing Unreasonable’, before Monkey commits carnage in a psychic bodysuit that can literally ‘Imagine That’: opening the doors to another Spring. At this time a certain white rabbit is pilfering carrots from an angry Hyooman, only to be saved by Monkey in the colossal exo-skeletal ‘Spade-O-Matic’, officially opening hostilities between bipeds and beasts…

Meanwhile and maybe later, Bunny experiences ‘Mossy Mayhem’ when Skunky’s latest experiment escapes, even as Metal E.V.E ponders astral reality and rashly asks her friend to explain ‘Pig Science’…

As monkey demands 25% more evil from his crew, he’s distracted by Metal Steve’s latest faux pas – a doomed relationship with ‘Wipey’ – and ‘Sun 2.0’ renders repercussions of Skunky upgrading the source of all light and warmth. Action Beaver is then subject to a ‘Body Swap’ after Monkey covets his apparent immunity to pain and harm. It doesn’t end well…

Once the Great Woodland Bake-off inevitably culminates in ‘Cakes and Bruises’ Monkey use a superstrength serum unwisely. As his bones mend he has a Damascus moment: deducing that being a ‘Good Monkey’ might be less harmful. He gives nobility a go… but it too doesn’t end well…

A fresh face materialises when Pig meets ‘The Visitor’ and inadvertently saves Lucky the Red Panda from atomic discorporation. Sadly, the effect is only temporary and when their memories merge, Lucky is stuck in residence in this dimension with our plucky porcine adrift in the molecular stream of the cosmos…

Trapped on Earth, the stranger tries desperately to convince all and sundry she is ‘Actually Pig’, often assisted by typical distractions like marauding sprout-farting monster ‘Gruntulak!’ and a no-holds-barred campaign to elect ‘President Monkey’.

Skunky starts disassembling woodland residents: harvesting DNA to make endless duplicates in ‘All A-Clone’ but even Skunky’s science can’t handle Lucky…

As Summer starts, mad science wins again. Skunky sets a trap to prove Lucky is ‘Not Pig’ and even finds what happened to the lost one, after which Monkey manages to murder cloud-gazing in ‘Weather or Not’ and Weenie gets a shocking letter in ‘Blackmail’…

With the truth about to out, ‘Pocket Pig’ sees the gentle woodland folk form a torch-waving mob to establish their real friend’s fate, only to find Skunky has already found a way to exploit the situation. However, when he constructs a device to reach the outer realms, Monkey makes a shambles of the ‘Portal Recall’…

When the awful anthropoid gets a mail-order giant robotic Chicken of Darkness, he never anticipated some assembly required and the woods are saved by ‘A Loose Nobble’, allowing good manners and better natures to resurface. Thus, the animals all contribute to ‘Lucky’s Home’: especially Monkey with his goop gun and crushing space-sphere of doom…

Elsewhere, as Metal Steve and Metal E.V.E hold a private contest to decide the best automaton in ‘Who Will Win the War of the Robots’, Skunky’s clumsiness triggers a crop of carnivorous blooms in ‘Chomp!’ Then, as Monkey’s alter ego “Captain Explosives” accidentally uncovers a crop of chronal crystals in ‘Time and Again’ Skunky makes his greatest breakthrough: a remote control for existence with a ‘Freeze Frame’ able to warp and rewind reality…

With everything on pause, ‘The Second Pigging’ heralds the return of a lost friend whose voyage to the cosmos has resulted in Complete Spiritual Enlightenment and manifestation as a Non-Corporeal Vision. Sadly, when nobody cheers, the ultimate Pig pops off in a dudgeon, leaving Lucky to save the day and restore time in ‘Hairy Nearly’: a major turning point that upsets many participants…

In what passes for a return to normality, Monkey is possessed by the ghost of a chicken and triggers an invasion of ‘Zombies!’ just as Autumn begins with Skunky and Monkey unleashing a giant robot that is ‘Turtle-y Ridiculous’…

Former good guy Fantastic Le Fox is also possessed and offers ‘A Warning’ of failure and worse that Monkey immediately reacts badly too, even as transcendent Pig returns to make contact with and elevate ‘Prophet Beaver’. Of course, nobody listens…

Meanwhile, Monkey has been messing with elemental forces and turned the woods into an ‘Expressionistic’ nightmare, before losing patience and challenging Bunny to a duel of ‘Brain Power’. After winning by cheating, the ape learns a painful lesson that is only the beginning of his woes as ‘Double Bunny’ sees a doppelganger emerge who will change the status quo in appalling ways…

Lost and distraught Bunny undertakes a mission for Skunky into the bowels of the earth in search of ‘Long-Lost Flopsy’. Guess how that ends…

The drama intensifies as ‘The Impossible Pig’ returns to reality only to discover that being ‘Disappointingly Mortal’ would be better than life as a power battery for Skunky, and that’s when ‘Lucky’s Fortune’ turns the tide…

Bunny has not been right since meeting the other rabbit and with Metal E.V.E.’s aid ‘The Search is On’ for a boon companion. Only briefly interrupted by realty running wild, the search resumes in ‘Better Luck Next Time!’ and Le Fox’s niece arrives for some rowdy ‘Fennec Fun!’ She’s on the run and another relation isn’t far behind her…

Solitude has bitten our hero hard and nothing Monkey can do will distract ‘A Lonely Bunny’ in his morose meanderings, so the little meany challenges Impossible Pig instead, and learns real suffering in ‘Butt Then…’

When Winter arrives, Lucky sees snow for the first time, enduring cheeky hostiles chucking chilly snowballs until the wonder-pig volunteers as ‘Protector’ and is soon tricked by Skunky who wants to depower the self-promoting saviour ‘At All Costs’…

Now resolved to return to the Molecular Stream, Impossible Pig takes advice from unknowable factor Le Fox, but stumbles into a wild Christmas Party on his way to the fabulous Lake of Eternity. He also meets Lucky who wants to leave this reality just as much, but as they argue over who should take the one-way ride a dear friend and desolate hero is already ‘Jumping the Queue’…

To Be Continued…

The agonised anxiety-addled animal anarchy might have ended for now, but there’s a few more secrets to share, thanks to detailed instructions on ‘How to Draw Lucky’ as well as a handy preview of other treats and wonders available in The Phoenix to wind down from all that angsty furore…

The zany zenith of absurdist adventure, Bunny vs Monkey is weird wit, brilliant invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. This is the kind of comic book parents beg kids to read to them. Shouldn’t that be you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2023. All rights reserved.

Bunny vs Monkey book 8: The Impossible Pig! will be published on September 28th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor and Captain America


By Paul Tobin, Scott Gray, Todd DeZago, Ronan Cliquet, Ron Lim, Lou Kang & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5584-3 (Digest PB)

In 2003 the House of Ideas instituted a Marvel Age line: an imprint updating classic original tales and characters for a newer, younger readership. The enterprise was modified in 2005, with core titles reduced to Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. The tone was very much that of the company’s burgeoning TV cartoon franchises, in delivery if not name.

Supplemental series including Super Heroes, The Avengers, Hulk and Iron Man chuntered along merrily until 2010 when they were cancelled. In their place came new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

Most of the re-imagined tales were collected in gleefully inviting digest-sized compilations and digitised; this – except for a electric version – was the case with this engaging ensemble featuring fabulous  forays starring the God of Thunder or Sentinel of Liberty and their Avenging allies: a quartet of all-ages tales from the second volume of Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (#13-16, spanning June-September 2011).

The action opens with a mythological masterpiece by Paul Tobin, Ronan Cliquet & Amilton Santos wherein plucky novice hero Nova is invited by Avenging comrades Thor and Valkyrie to accompany them on an annual errand for All-Father Odin.

In the distant past when Asgardians warred with Trolls, godling messenger Glane failed in his mission and was banished to the ghastly Fields of the Fallen to pay penance by continually battling the Golden Realm’s vilest enemies. Periodically, Thor has been sent to add new tasks to the sinning failure’s heavy burden, and this year – as the Thunderer and Valkyrie ready themselves for the trip – they invite starstruck neophyte Nova along.

However, as the trio war their way through horrific monsters and overwhelming odds, Nova finds himself increasingly uncomfortable with the sentence meted out to Glane. He even begins doubting the motives of his immortal mentors. All that changes once he meets and battles beside the convicted penitent…

Originating in MASH #14, ‘Out of Time!’ is by Todd DeZago, Ron Lim & Scott Koblish (inspired by Gerry Conway & Ross Andru’s tale from the original Marvel Team-Up #7). Here, the Lord of Storm intercepts Spider-Man after the wallcrawler is blasted high into the sky whilst battling raving maniac the Looter.

That happy coincidence occurs just a bizarre force freezes time around them. When the heroes discover that only they have escaped a devastating weapon deployed by Trollish tyrant Kryllk the Conqueror to paralyze and overwhelm both Asgard and the mortal plane, they must divide their strength to simultaneously smash the conqueror in Manhattan and Asgard if they are to set time running free again…

Captain America takes the spotlight in #15 as ‘Back in Time’ (Tobin, Cliquet & Santos) finds him battling Neanderthals with ray-guns in a National Forest after tracking down rogue geneticists who have stolen a huge amount of plutonium.

A mere mile away, Peter Parker’s girlfriend Sophia Sanduval is getting back to nature and chilling with her furry, scaly and feathered friends. As Chat, the mutant teen’s power to communicate with animals makes her a crucial component of the mystery-solving Blonde Phantom Detective Agency, but even she has never seen anything like the wave of extinct creatures which appear after Cap begins battling the tooled-up cavemen.

Soon Chat has been briefed on the deadly experiments of rogue technologist Jerrick Brogg. The villain’s ambition is to build an army out of revived extinct creatures, but she and helps The Star-Spangled Avenger frustrate those save all the beasts he has re-created from short painful lives of terror and brutal exploitation, before putting the maniac away for good.

Wrapping up the action comes ‘Stars, Stripes and Spiders!’ by DeZago, Lou Kang & Pat Davidson (based on Len Wein & Gil Kane’s tale from Marvel Team-Up #13). When a certain wallcrawling high-school student/occasional masked hero stumbles into Captain America tackling an AIM cadre stealing super-soldier serum, the nervous lad learns a few things about the hero game from the legendary guy who wrote the book. Sadly, not making that lesson any easier is petrifying supervillain Grey Gargoyle, whose deadly touch almost ends Spidey’s homework worries – and continued existence – forever…

Fast, furious, funny and enthralling, these riotous mini-epics are extremely enjoyable yarns, although parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the level of violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action”…
© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Evil Emperor Penguin: The World Will Be Mine!


By Laura Ellen Anderson, with Kate Brown (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-299-1 (Digest PB)

A lifetime ago in 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched an “old school” weekly comics anthology aimed at girls and boys between 6 and 12. It revelled in reviving the grand old days of British picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in its style and content. This comprised comic strips, humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles, educational material and activity pages in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy.

In the years since, the periodical has gone from strength to strength, its pantheon of superbly engaging strips generating lines of superbly engaging graphic novel compilations, the latest of which is this riotous romp starring a gloriously malign and inept arch-wizard of scientific wickedness who delights readers with a profound sense of mischief and unbridled imagination…

Conceived and created by illustrator and author Laura Ellen Anderson (Kittens, Snow Babies, My Brother is a Superhero, Amelia Fang!, Rainbow Grey, I Don’t Want…), these are the revived, remastered and extended exploits of Evil Emperor Penguin!

The bad bird lives in a colossal fortress beneath the Antarctic, working ceaselessly towards total world domination, assisted by his stylish and erudite many-tentacled administrative lackey Number 8 and cutely fuzzy, passionately loyal Eugene. The latter is an endlessly inventive little abominable snowman clone. EEP had whipped up a batch of 250, but none of the others are quite like Eugene…

The penguin potentate appointed the hairy, bizarrely inspired tyke Top Minion, but somehow never managed to instil him with the requisite degree of evilness. Still, he is a dab-hand with spaghetti hoops, so it’s not a total loss.

Following an crucially informative  pin-up of ‘the Gang’ and some recurring rivals and foes with an info-packed double-page map of the Evil Underground Headquarters (disclosing all you’ll need to know) another assortment of vile vignettes begins with ‘Quantum EEP’ as a mishap with time travelling commodes send the penguin and his tentacular deputy back in time to meet their younger hippie selves – and make them evil if they want to get home and conquer the world. If only their earlier selves weren’t so seductively content…

Back in the present, Eugene and his substandard substitute assistant Neill are trying to fix the glitch but it’s tricky with chunks of reality fading away as you reach for them.

Ultimately, the wrong real is put right and EEP resumes his plans, leading to exploiting a radical new power source in ‘Pomme de Terror’ – which then evolves into a marauding horror made even worse by arch World Domination rival Evil Cat popping in for a spot of smug mockery…

Eugene’s secret passion for footwear inspires the Bad Bird’s next plan for global enslavement in ‘Shoe-Gene’ and results in the good servant being captured by the moustachioed, top-hatted, perfidious puss whose ‘Big Fat Doom-Button’ seems certain to eradicate the top minion’s benevolent guardian jolly unicorn Keith and all his wondrous kin.

Even an unprecedented team-up of EEP and the horned horsey isn’t enough to quell the crisis and it needs the last-minute intervention of valiant narwhal Norman and his finny chums to end the cat’s plans, but at least the rescue has laid the groundwork for a future romance…

Fully restored and ready for more evil, ‘Marshminion Surprise’ sees EEP attempting to turn humanity into gooey taste treats, but instead transforming Eugene after Evil Cat interferes again. No sooner is abnormality restored than reality television inspires even greater horror when the penguin produces hyper-judgemental talent show ‘The Yay Factor’ before Eugene’s love of a Farmer’s Market leads to EEP’s invention of brain-shrinking fruit in ‘An Epple a Day’. Naturally, nothing goes right and Antarctica soon is imperilled by a giant hairy head…

‘A Penguin’s Christmas Carol’ sees the villain forced to examine his own past present and future in the traditional spoofish yet moving manner before a new year welcomes fresh terror as EEP unleashes carnivorous wheelie-bins in ‘Time to Take Out the Trash’, prior to the debut of the politest murderous minion ever as ‘Flegburt’ introduces himself and Evil Cat’s scheme to destroy the penguin’s beloved Invention Room of Evil. Of course, even good manners can’t compensate for Eugene’s unique charm…

A critical postal cock up triggers ‘The Great Chase’ across the icy continent – consequently disrupting Keith and Norman’s first date – before the status quo between potential world tyrants is restored and EEP attempts to subjugate elected world leaders with genetically modified ‘Flower Power’.

The threat level then drops as the penguin suffers a dearth of inspiration in ‘Evil Block’ and takes out his frustrations on everybody until he builds a relaxation machine and really goes off the deep end. Drenched in chaos and worse, EEP must join with Evil Cat and unknown rival Evil Rat enduing countless terrors and discovering the awful truth about pigeons…

With Flegburt having turned turncoat and now minioning for the Evil Penguin, ‘Plan Poover’ finds young unicorn Colin doing his work experience placement with Number 8, thanks to a recommendation from his uncle Keith. It soon looks like he’ll never get that precious Sparkle Scouts Career Badge after designing the Super Epic Human Rainbow Vacuum…

More upset occurs after the unwary penguin plugs in the ‘Evil Printer’ and reality starts rebelling, even as the discovery of ‘Flegburt’s True Calling’ triggers fashion, shopping and a major career change after which brainwash chemical ‘Shampoogene’ is unleashed. It’s meant to clean humanity’s heads… and brains!… but there’s a little unwelcome side effect…

Eugene’s love of blowing bubbles sparks ‘The Unpoppable Plan’ and almost ends everyone until Keith and Norman intercede, before – with “bubblegeddon” averted – master and servants settle back for ‘A Christmas to Remember’ when the bird decides to steal Santa’s job and position…

Rocket-paced, hilariously inventive, wickedly arch and utterly determined to be silly at all costs, this tome of terror also has educational merit as it offers lessons on ‘How to Draw EEP’.

Evil Emperor Penguin: The World Will Be Mine! is a captivating cascade of smart, witty funny adventure, which will delight readers of all ages.
Text and illustrations © Laura Ellen Anderson 2023. All rights reserved.

Evil Emperor Penguin The World Will Be Mine! will be released (but not for good behaviour) on September 7th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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Marvel Adventures Avengers volume 9: The Times They Are A‘Changin’


By Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, Ig Guara, Casey Jones, Christian Vecchia & Sandro Ribeiro (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3832-7 (PB/Digital edition)

Time for another anniversary shout-out, so let’s celebrate the fact that The Avengers #1 (cover-dated September 1963 but on sale from July 2nd) was sold out on newsstands all over America by today’s date…

In 2003, the House of Ideas created a Marvel Age line updating classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko before merging it with remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic.

The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with core titles Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man carrying all-original yarns. Additional titles included Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, Power Pack, Hulk and The Avengers, which ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This particularly light-hearted digest-sized collection re-presents issues #32-35 of Marvel Adventures Avengers (from 2009), offering stand-alone yarns to delight fans with a sense of humour and iota of wit…

What You Need To Know: this incarnation of the World’s Mightiest Superheroes operates an “open-door” policy where almost every metahuman marvel might turn up for duty. However – presumably because of their TV cartoon popularity – the Wondrous Wallcrawler and Jade Juggernaut are on scene in almost every episode…

Written throughout by Paul Tobin (No Romance in Hell, Plants vs Zombies), an avalanche of fast-paced fun begins with ‘The Big Payoff’ illustrated by Matteo Lolli & Christian Vecchia, wherein the team gets a most unpleasant visit from Special Agent Clark Harvey of the Internal Revenue Service.

This weaselling civil servant is ostensibly there to collect individual Avengers’ taxes, but it’s all a ploy to blackmail the team into forcing a bunch of defaulting villains into paying up…

Smart and deviously hilarious, the clashes between Giant-Girl, Spider-Man and Luke Cage against Whirlwind, the web-spinner and erudite philosophical monster/political activist Oog or Man-Bull versus Iron Man are entertainment enough, but Iron Man and Giant-Girl overmatched against the Absorbing Man and the childlike Hulk convincing assassin Bullseye to do his patriotic duty are utterly priceless…

When jungle king Ka-Zar visits from the Antarctic lost world, all he can think about is learning how to use a car. Sadly Wolverine, Storm, Giant-Girl, Hulk and Spidey all feel safer battling an invasion of super-saurians unleashed by Stegron the Dinosaur Man than sitting in the same vehicle as the Lord of the Savage Land in ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’, with art by Ig Guara & Sandro Ribeiro…

When ancient Egyptian magicians turn time into an out-of-control merry-go-round, ‘Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos!’ (Lolli & Vecchia) are caught up in the assorted eras of chaos, with Ant-Man, Giant-Girl, Tigra, Storm, the wallcrawler and Hulk frantically fighting just to keep up…

Rendered by Casey Jones, this titanic tiny tome concludes on a romantic note in ‘Lovers Leaper’ when all the female Avengers head off for a vacation break. They foolishly thought Captain America, Cage, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Wolverine could handle things for a while, but boys will be slobs and soon the HQ is a ghastly mess of “man-cave” madness…

Moreover, since Hawkeye now needs a date for the Annual Archer Awards, he tries an on-line dating service, and uploads not just his but all his buddies’ information onto the site…

With seemingly every eligible lady – super-powered and not – in New York City subscribing to the Lovers Leap site, our unsuspecting heroes are soon being bombarded by an army of annoyed women who think they’ve been stood up by the utterly oblivious Avengers.

… And when they try to get the owner to remove their details, the heroes discover French former bad-guy Batroc the Leaper is in charge and unwilling to do them any favours…

Smart and fun on many levels, bright, breezy and bursting with light-hearted action and loads of solid laughs, this book offers a fabulous alternative to regular Marvel Universe angst and agony. Even with the violence toned down and “cartooned-up” these stories are superbly thrilling and beautifully depicted: a perfect introduction for kids and adults alike to the vast realm of adventure we all love…

These collected stories present an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born generations away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Face Ache volume 1: The First 100 Scrunges


By Ken Reid, with Ian Mennell & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-601-8 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-78108-865-4 (TPB)

Time flies and it’s not long to Halloween now, so if you need a bit of practise making scary faces to extract sweets from suckers, here’s a classic “how-to” manual to get you back up to speed…

If you know British Comics, you’ll know Ken Reid. He was another of those youthful yet rebellious artistic prodigies who, largely unsung, went about transforming British Comics: entertaining millions and inspiring hundreds of those readers to become cartoonists too.

Reid was born in Manchester in 1919 and drew from the moment he could grasp an implement. Aged nine, he was confined to bed for six months with a tubercular hip, and occupied himself with constant scribbling and sketching. Ken left school before his 14th birthday, winning a scholarship to Salford Art School, but never graduated. He was, by all accounts, expelled for cutting classes and hanging about in cafes…

Undaunted he set up as a commercial artist, but floundered until his dad began acting as his agent.

The big break was a blagger’s triumph. He talked his way into an interview with the Art Editor of the Manchester Evening News and came away with a commission for a strip in its new Children’s Section. The Adventures of Fudge the Elf (Stop it! It’s not that sort of strip) launched in 1938 and ran until 1963, with only a single, albeit lengthy, hiatus from 1941 to 1946 when Reid served in the armed forces.

From the late 1940s onwards, Reid dallied with comics periodicals: his work (Super Sam, Billy Boffin, Foxy) were published in Comic Cuts and with submissions to The Eagle, before a fortuitous family connection (Reid’s brother-in-law was Dandy illustrator Bill Holroyd) brought DC Thomson managing editor R.D. Low to his door with a cast-iron offer of work.

On April 18th 1953 Roger the Dodger debuted in The Beano. Reid drew the feature until 1959 and created numerous others including the fabulously mordant doomed mariner Jonah, Ali Ha-Ha and the 40 Thieves, Grandpa and Jinx among many more.

In 1964, Reid and fellow underappreciated superstar Leo Baxendale jumped ship to work for DCT’s arch-rival Odhams Press. This gave Ken greater license to explore his ghoulish side: concentrating on comic horror yarns and grotesque situations in strips like Frankie Stein, and The Nervs in Wham! And Smash! as well as more visually wholesome – but still strikingly surreal – fare as Queen of the Seas and Dare-a-Day Davy.

In 1971, Reid devised Face Ache – arguably his career masterpiece – for debuting weekly Jet. The hilariously horrific strip was popular enough to survive the comic’s demise – after a paltry 22 weeks – and carried over in a merger with stalwart periodical Buster where it thrived until 1987. During that time, Reid continued innovating and creating in a horde of new strips like Creepy Creations, Harry Hammertoe the Soccer Spook, Wanted Posters, Martha’s Monster Makeup, Tom’s Horror World and a dozen others.

Reid died in 1987 from the complications of a stroke he’d suffered on February 2nd, whilst at his drawing board, putting the finishing touches to a Face Ache strip. On his passing the strip was taken over by Frank Diarmid who drew until its cancelation in October 1988.

The astoundingly absorbing comedy classic is a perfect example of resolutely British humorous sensibilities – absurdist, anarchic and gleefully grotesque – and revolves around a typically unruly and unlovely scrofulous schoolboy making great capital out of a unique gift, albeit often to his own detriment and great regret…

Ricky Rubberneck early discovered an appalling (un)natural ability of scrunching (or “scrungeing”) up his face into such ghastly contortions that he can revolt, disgust and terrify anyone who gazes upon him. Over weeks and years, the modern medusa works hard to polish his gifts until his foul fizzog may attain any formation. Eventually his entire body can be reshaped to mimic any creature or form, real or imagined. Naturally, he uses his powers to play pranks, take petty vengeances, turn a temporary profit, deal with bullies and impress his pals.

Just as naturally, those efforts frequently result in the standard late 20th century punishments being dealt out by his dad, teachers and sundry other outraged adults…

Now available in paperback, hardback and digitally this initial celebration is part of Rebellion’s ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics: collecting all 22 Jet episodes (from May 1st to September 29th 1971, plus the remaining 78 weeks’ worth from Buster & Jet, beginning with October 2nd and concluding with March 24th 1973.

The potent package is garnished with an appreciative Introduction by Alan Moore – ‘The Unacceptable Face of British Comics’ – a fondly intimate reminiscence in Antony J. Reid’s ‘My Father Ken Reid’ and a full biography of the great man…

What follows is an outrageous outpouring of raw cartoon creativity as Reid, writing and drawing with inspired effulgence, spins a seemingly infinite skein of comedy gold on his timeless theme of a little boy who makes faces at the world.

Weekly deadlines are a ferocious foe however, and a couple of strips reprinted were written by unsung pro Ian Mennell, whilst – between January & September 1972 – an uncredited fill-in artist (possibly Robert Nixon?) illustrated 16 episodes, presumably as Reid’s other commitments such as Jasper the Grasper, The Nervs or his numerous funny football features in Scorcher & Score mounted.

In these pages though, the accent is on madcap tomfoolery as our plastic-pussed poltroon undergoes a succession of fantastic facial reconfigurations: terrifying teachers, petrifying posh and pushy landowners, mimicking monstrous beasts, outraging officious officialdom and entertaining an army of schoolboy chums and chumps.

Orchards are raided, competitions are entered, plays and school trips are upstaged and aborted and even actual spooks and horrors are afforded the shocks of their unlives as Face Ache gurns his way through an endless parade of hilarious hijinks.

These cartoon capers are amongst the most memorable and re-readable exploits in all of British comics history: smart, eternally funny and beautifully rendered. This a treasure-trove of laughs that spans generations and deserves to be in every family bookcase.
© 1971, 1972, 1973 & 2017 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Introduction © Alan Moore. Face Ache ™ & © Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Ducoboo volume 3: Your answers or your life!


By Godi & Zidrou, coloured by Véronique Grobet & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-28-1 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Back to school countdown begins now!

School stories and strips of every tone about juvenile fools, devils and rebels are a lynchpin of modern western entertainment and an even larger staple of Japanese comics – where the scenario has spawned its own wild and vibrant subgenres. However, would Dennis the Menace (ours and theirs), Komi Can’t Communicate, Winker Watson, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Power Pack, Cédric or any of the rest be improved or just different if they were created by former teachers rather than ex-kids or current parents?

It’s no surprise the form is evergreen: schooling (and tragically, sometimes, a lack of it) takes up a huge amount of children’s attention no matter how impoverished or privileged they are, and their fictions will naturally address their issues and interests. It’s fascinating to see just how much school stories revolve around humour, but always with huge helpings of drama, terror, romance and an occasional dash of action…

One of the most popular European strips employing those eternal but basic themes and methodology began in the last fraction of the 20th century, courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Godi. Drousie is Belgian, born in 1962 and for six years a school teacher prior to changing careers in 1990 to write comics like those he probably used to confiscate in class.

Other mainstream successes in a range of genres include Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a superb revival of Ric Hochet and many more. However, his most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (digitally available in English as Glorious Summers) and 2010’s sublime Lydie, both illustrated by Spanish artist Jordi Lafebre. Zidrou began his comics career with what he knew best: stories about and for kids, including Crannibales, Tamara, Margot et Oscar Pluche and, most significantly, a feature about a (and please forgive the charged term) school dunce: L’Elève Ducobu…

Godi is a Belgian National Treasure, born Bernard Godisiabois in Etterbeek in December 1951. After studying Plastic Arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels he became an assistant to comics legend Eddy Paape in 1970, working on the strip Tommy Banco for Le Journal de Tintin whilst freelancing as an illustrator for numerous comics and magazines. He became a Tintin regular three years later, primarily limning C. Blareau’s Comte Lombardi, but also working on gag strip Red Rétro by Vicq, with whom he also produced Cap’tain Anblus McManus and Le Triangle des Bermudes for Le Journal de Spirou in the early 1980s. He also soloed on Diogène Terrier (1981-1983) for Casterman.

Godi moved into advertising cartoons and television, cocreating with Nic Broca the animated TV series Ovide. He only returned to comics in 1991, collaborating with newcomer Zidrou on L’Elève Ducobu for Tremplin magazine. The strip launched in September 1992 before transferring to Le Journal de Mickey, and collected albums began in 1997 – 25 so far in French, Dutch, Turkish and for Indonesian readers.

When not immortalising modern school days for future generations, Godi diversified, co-creating (1995 with Zidrou) comedy feature Suivez le Guide and game page Démon du Jeu with scripter Janssens. The series spawned a live action movie franchise and a dozen pocket books plus all the usual attendant merchandise paraphernalia. English-speakers’ introduction to the series (5 volumes only thus far) came courtesy of Cinebook with 2006’s initial release King of the Dunces – in actuality the 5th European collection L’élève Ducobu – Le roi des cancres.

The unbeatable format comprises short – most often single page – gag strips like you’d see in The Beano, involving a revolving cast -well established albeit also fairly one-dimensional and easy to get a handle on.

Our star is a well-meaning, good natured but terminally lazy young oaf who doesn’t get on with school. He’s sharp, inventive, imaginative, inquisitive, personable and not academical at all. We might today put him on a spectrum or diagnose a disorder like ADHD, but at heart he’s just not interested and can always find better – or at least more interesting – things to do…

Dad is a civil servant and Mum left home when Ducoboo was an infant, but then there’s a lot of that about. Leonie Gratin – the girly brainbox from whom he constantly copies answers to interminable written tests – only has a mum.

Ducoboo and his class colleagues attend Saint Potache School and are mostly taught and tested by ferocious, impatient, mushroom-mad Mr Latouche. He’s something of humourless martinet, and thanks to him, Ducoboo has spent so much time in the corner with a dunce cap on his head that he’s struck up a friendship with the biology skeleton. He (She? They!) answer to Skelly – always ready with a theory or suggestion for fun and frolics…

Released in 1999, Les Réponse ou la vie? was the third collected album: a compendium of classic clowning about that begins with another new term and Ducoboo doing his utmost to not be there.

Tracing a year in the life of all concerned, the skiver’s early antics to get illicit answers include feigning blindness, sleight of hand, outright rebellion, time-bending and stealing the keys to the small safe Leonie keeps her completed exam papers in. The champion cheat even hires private detectives and surveillance teams and tries playing poker with a fixed deck but again underestimates his swotty nemesis…

The brief blessed interlude of Christmas offers little respite before a new term brings an extended crisis. When the classroom is scheduled to get a new sink, the prime position can only be the corner almost permanently occupied by the dunce and Skelly. Appalled to be losing his second home, the boy begins a campaign of resistance. The plumber doesn’t mind: as he keeps reminding everyone, he’s paid by the hour…

With Leonie gleefully reporting ‘News from the Frontline’ the war grinds on for weeks with neither side gaining ground until a diplomatic breakthrough allows the sink to be installed. However, the plumber is still paid by the hour and has inspired Ducoboo with his proficient mien, lack of urgency and dearth of credentials. The boy now has a new dream for his future…

With labours glacially proceeding all term long, some measure of abnormality eventually returns to class, but the workman’s appeal has spread to the normal kids by the time the job is finally done. Moreover, by the time the exorbitant bill arrives, Ducoboo has engineered one last extravagant flourish…

As he and Leonie resume their eternal dance of deception, the regular, always relevant riffs episodically return: museum visits, failed bluffs (focussed on geography lessons), and other imaginative distractions allowing Ducoboo to copy answers, but they are mere preamble to the dawn of a new era as the kids discover simultaneously, the wonders and infinite temptations and potential of laptop computers…

The escalation proves so ferocious and terrible that Leonie even attempts the unthinkable: teaching Ducoboo herself…

Somehow, everyone lives to the end of another year and vacation time beckons, but even here poor Latouche cannot escape the effects of his most difficult pupil…

Wry, witty and whimsical whilst deftly recycling constant and adored childhood themes, Ducuboo is an up-tempo, upbeat addition to the genre every parent or pupil can appreciate and enjoy. If your kids aren’t back from school quite yet, why not anticipate keeping them occupied when that happens with Your answers or your life! and consider that there are kids far more demanding than even yours…
© Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard) 1999 by Godi & Zidrou. English translation © 2008 Cinebook Ltd.

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Tiny Titans volume 1: Welcome to the Clubhouse


By Art Baltazar & Franco (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2207-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

The links between animated features and comic books are long established and, for young consumers, indistinguishable. After all, it’s just entertainment in the end…

For quite some time at the beginning of this century, DC’s Cartoon Network imprint was arguably the last bastion of children’s comics in America and worked to consolidate that link between TV and 2D fun and thrills with stunning interpretations of such television landmarks as Ben 10, Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and so many other screen gems.

The kids’ comics line also produced some truly exceptional material based on TV iterations of the publisher’s proprietary characters such as Legion of Super Heroes, Batman: Brave and the Bold and Krypto the Super Dog as well as material like Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! which was merely similar in tone and content. Perhaps the line’s finest release was a series ostensibly aimed at early-readers but which quickly became a firm favourite of older fans and a multi-award winner too.

Superbly mirroring the magical wonderland inside a child’s head where everything is happily all smooshed up together, Tiny Titans became a sublime antidote to continuity cops and slavish fan-boy quibbling (all together now: “… erm, uh… I think you’ll find that in…”) by reducing the vast cast of the Teen Titans Go! animated series, the far greater boutique of the mainstream comics – and eventually the entire DC Universe continuity – to little kids and their parents/guardians in a wholesome kindergarten environment.

It’s a scenario spring-loaded with multi-layered in-jokes, sight-gags and the beloved yet gently mocked trappings and paraphernalia generations of strip readers and screen-watchers can never forget…

Collecting issues #1-6 (cover-dated April to September 2008) of a magically madcap, infinitely addictive all-ages mini-masterpiece, this debut volume begins after an as-standard identifying roll-call page at ‘Sidekick City Elementary’ where new Principal Mr. Slade is revealed to be not only Deathstroke the Terminator but also poor little Rose’s dad! How embarrassing…

Art Baltazar and co-creator Franco (Aureliani) pioneered and mastered a witty, bemusingly gentle manner of storytelling that just happily rolls along, with the assorted characters getting by, trying to make sense of the great big world while having “Adventures in Awesomeness”. A primal example is Beast Boy getting a new pet and becoming ‘Man’s Dog’s Best Friend’…

The method generally involves stringing together smaller incidents and moments into an overarching themed portmanteau tale… and it works astoundingly well.

Back in class Robin and Kid Flash tease a fellow student in ‘Speedy Quiz’ whilst ‘Meanwhile in Titans Tower’ (the treehouse of the title) finds Wonder Girl, Bumblebee, Raven and Starfire discussing whether to let Batgirl Barbara Gordon join their circle…

Later everyone meets up and helps scary blob Plasmus cope with an ice cream crisis but shocks still abound at school. Raven’s dad is an antlered crimson devil from another universe, but his most upsetting aspect is as the new substitute teacher!

Happily, however, at the treehouse the kids can forget their worries, as Wonder Girl Cassie’s new casual look – after initial resistance – wins many admirers among the boys…

The original comics were filled with activity pages, puzzles and pin-ups, so ‘Help Best Boy Find his Puppy Friend!’ and awesome group-shot ‘Awwwww Yeah Titans!!!’ offers an arty interlude before shenanigans resume with ‘Ow’ as new girl Terra persists in throwing rocks at the boys yet knows just how to make friends with the girls…

Not so much for the little lads though: they’ve got into another confrontation with mean kids Fearsome Five. Apparently the only way to determine who wins is to keep ‘Just a-Swingin’ – and ignore those bullies…

After teeny-weeny Little Teen Titan Kid Devil finds a delicious new way to use his heat power, Beast Boy becomes besotted by Terra in ‘Shadows of Love’, even though his obvious affection makes him act like an animal. While ‘Easy Bake Cyborg’ saves the day at snack time, the lovesick green kid follows some foolish advice and transforms into a ‘Beast Boy of Steel’…

At least Kid Devil is making friends, providing ‘Charbroiled Goodness’ for a local food vendor, just as the Fearsome Five show up again…

Following a pin-up of the bad kids and a brainteaser to ‘Match the Tiny Titans to their Action Accessories!’, a new school day finds science teacher Doctor Light losing control in ‘Zoology 101’ thanks to Beast Boy’s quick changes, after which ‘Sidekick’s Superheroes’ debate status and origins whilst Rose’s ‘Li’l Bro Jericho’ causes chaos and closes the school for the day.

When Robin brings some pals home, Alfred the Butler is reluctant to let them check out the ‘Batcave Action Playset’. He should have listened to his misgivings: that way there wouldn’t be so much mess or so many penguins…

After Aqualad’s suggestion ‘Let’s Play: Find Fluffy!’ the Boy Wonder has the strangest day, starting with ‘Robin and the Robins’ and culminating in a new costume. Before that though, you can see ‘Beast Boy at the Dentist’, Wonder Girl enduring a ‘Babysittin’ Baby Makeover’, meet ‘Beast Boy’s Prize’ and experience hair gone wild in ‘Do the “Do”’. Eventually, however, ‘It’s a Nightwing Thing’: revisiting the exotic yesteryears of disco mania as new outfits debut to mixed reviews and reactions…

Once done testing your skill with the ‘Tiny Titans Match Game!’ and admiring a ‘Little Tiny Titans Bonus Pin-up’ there are big thrills in store when ‘Playground Invaders’ introduces annoying Titans from the East side of the communal games…

Sadly, Fearsome Five are still around to tease the former Robin in ‘Nightwing on Rye’ even whilst ongoing epic ‘Enigma and Speedy’ sees the Boy Bowman trapped in a very one-sided battle of wits with the Riddler’s daughter…

Robin’s costume crises continue to confuse in ‘May We Take a Bat-Message?’, resulting in a kid capitulation and ‘Back to Basics’ approach to the old look, after which ‘Tiny Titans Joke Time!’ and a ‘Tiny Titans East Bonus Pin-up’ segues neatly into ‘Meet Ya, Greet Ya’ with newcomers Supergirl and Blue Beetle turning up just ahead of a host of wannabee Titans (Power Boy, Zatara, Vulcan Jr., Hawk & Dove, Li’l Barda and Lagoon Boy)…

With the riotous regulars away camping, Raven opens her eyes to a potential daybreak disaster as ‘Home with the Trigons’ finds her dressed by her dad for a change. Meanwhile, ‘Let’s Do Lunch’ finds Blue Beetle losing a very public argument with his backpack, and after the kids bring their super-animal pals in, everything goes horribly wrong. At least they decide that the “First Rule of Pet Club is: We Don’t Talk About Pet Club”…

This insanely addictive initial collection wraps up with visual and word puzzles ‘How Many Beast Boy Alpacas Can You Count?’ and ‘Blue Beetle Backpack Language Translation!’, a huge and inclusive Pin-up of ‘The Tiny Titans of Sidekick City Elementary’ and a hilarious ‘Tiny Titans “Growth Chart” …

Despite ostensibly being aimed at super-juniors and TV kids, these wonderful, wacky yarns – which marvellously marry the heart and spirit of such classic strips as The Perishers or Peanuts with something uniquely mired and marinated in pure American comic-bookery – are outrageously unforgettable yarns and gags no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, entertaining, and wickedly intoxicating.
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Billy & Buddy volume 1: Remember This, Buddy?


By Jean Roba, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-91-5 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Known as Boule et Bill on the Continent (in the French speaking bits – Dutch and Flemish folk call them Bollie en Billie), this evergreen, immensely popular cartoon story of a boy and his dog debuted in the Christmas 1959 edition of multinational anthology Le Journal de Spirou.

It came from Belgian writer-artist Jean Roba (Spirou et Fantasio, La Ribambelle, Gomer Goof) putting his head together with the magazine’s Artistic Director/Ideas Man Maurice Rosy – who had also ghosted art and/or scripts on Jerry Spring, Tif et Tondu, Bobo and Attila during a decades-long, astoundingly productive career with the legendary periodical.

Intended as a European answer to Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, Boule et Bill would quickly go its own way and carve out a unique personality all its own, becoming Rosa’s main occupation for the next 45 years.

He tirelessly crafted more than a thousand gag-strip pages of a beguiling idealised domestic comedy about a little lad and his rather clever Cocker Spaniel before – in 2003 – handing art-chores over to his long-term assistant Laurent Verron. The substitute subsequently took over writing too after Roba died in 2006.

Born in Schaerbeek, Belgium on July 28th 1930 Jean Roba grew up reading mostly US reprint strips. He was particularly partial to Rudolph Dirks and Harold H. Knerr’s Katzenjammer Kids. After the War, he began as a jobbing illustrator before adopting a loose, free-wheeling cartooning style known as the “Marcinelle School” and joining the Spirou crew.

He followed Uderzo on Sa majesté mon mari and perfected his comics craft under Franquin on Spirou et Fantasio before launching Boule et Bill in a mini-récit (32-page, half-sized freebie insert) in the December 24th 1959 LJdS. Like our own Dennis the Menace in The Beano, the strip was incredibly popular from the off and for 25 years held the coveted and prestigious back-cover spot. Older British fanboys might recognise the art as early episodes – retitled It’s a Dog’s Life – ran in Fleetway’s Valiant between 1961- 1965.

A cornerstone of European life, the strip has sparked a live-action movie, animated TV series, computer games, permanent art gallery exhibitions, sculptures and even postage stamps. Like some select immortal Belgian comics stars, Bollie en Billie have a commemorative plaque and a street named after them in Brussels…

Large format album editions began immediately, totalling 21 volumes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. These were completely redesigned and re-released in the 1980s, supplemented by a range of early reader books for the very young. Comics collections have been translated into fourteen languages and sold in excess of 25 million copies of the 32 albums to date.

Renamed Billy and Buddy, the strip debuted en Angleterre in Cinebook compilations from 2009 on: introducing a standard sitcom nuclear family consisting of one bemused and long-suffering father, a warm, compassionate but painfully ditzy mother, a smart son and his genius dog which has a penchant for finding bones, puddles and trouble…

The majority of this book – Tu te rappelles, Bill? – was the sixth original collection before being cut down and reissued as volume 17 in Europe, but here acts as an ideal vehicle to set up the characters and settings for our delight and delectation. Inside you’ll see a non-stop parade of quick-fire quips and jests as 7-year-old Billy enjoys carefree romps with 4-footed friend Buddy: digging up treasure on the beach, chasing cats, learning tricks to be useful around the house and generally baffling and annoying grown-ups.

Buddy is the perfect pet for an imaginative boy, although he’s overly fond of bones and rather protective of them. He also does not understand why everyone is so keen to constantly plunge him into foul-tasting soapy water, but it’s just a sacrifice he’s prepared to make to be with Billy.

Gently-paced and packed with wry wit and potent sentiment, these captivating vignettes range from heart-warming to hilarious: a delightful tribute to and argument for a child for every pet and vice versa. This is a solid, family-oriented collection of comics no one trying to introduce youngsters to the medium should be without.
Original edition © Studio Boule & Bill 2008 by Roba. English translation © 2009 Cinebook Ltd.

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Captain Long Ears


By Diana Thung (SLG Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-59362-187-2 (TPB)

You might not have noticed – or even care – but every so often we slip in a week or so of themed recommendations. This time it’s “Pesky Kids” in all their picto-literary glory. We’ve seen youthful heroes, classic scallywags and comedically oppressed minors. Today we’re sharing a lost classic of the form which asks and answers just why some kids act like they do all wrapped up in a genial mystery with a hidden edge…

Here’s a odd thing. For a while, some years back, Diana Thung was a glittering name and shining prospect in graphic storytelling, but after two brilliant all-ages fantasy triumphs she dropped out of sight.

I don’t know why – and to be honest have no right to. It is a great shame as her work was groundbreaking and remains superb. I hope she’s well and happy, and I’m not going to stop recommending her delightful creations…

Thung was born in Jakarta, and grew up in Singapore before eventually settling in Australia. She is a natural storyteller, cartoonist and comics creator of sublime wit and imagination with a direct hotline to infinite thoughtscapes of childhood. Every single thing populating her astonishingly unique worlds is honed to razor sharpness and pinpoint logical clarity, no matter how weird or whimsical it might initially seem.

The sentiment is pure and unrefined; scenarios are perfectly constructed and effectively, authentically realised – and when things get tense and scary they are excessively tense and really, really scary… and pretty bloody sad too.

After SLG published debut series Captain Long Ears in 2010, Thung catapulted to (relative comic book) fame and two years later delivered her first original graphic novel August Moon, following up with Splendour in the Snow, before melting away. Prior to all that though she shared a very personal view of loss and bereavement that is both beguiling and hilarious, raw and unpolished and masked by a potent screen of happy manga style.

Michael lives in his head a lot. That’s okay though because he’s only eight, and it’s exciting there since that where his best friend lives too. That imaginative interior is packed with fun and thrills and a super-science citadel where Exalted Space Ninja Captain Long Ears and his deputy Captain Jam undertake their cosmic duties and eat peanut butter sandwiches. The situation is tense. All contact has been lost with supreme leader Captain Big Nose who has not answered hails for the longest time. Captain Jam acts like he knows something, but he’s not talking…

After putting themselves to bed, the next day dawns with Mum still – or already – at work. It’s become a habit but Michael can cope. Making breakfast (sugar with cereal), packing snacks and grabbing some cash, he and his cuddly gorilla bear are calling in at Headquarters. Maybe Captain Big Nose is there…

As they get off the bus outside seedy amusement park Happy Land, two overwrought workers are having a very tough time delivering a large wooden packing crate. It’s heavy, smelly, constantly shaking and emitting scary noises.

By the time they’ve dropped it in the enclosure behind the park grounds, Long Ears and Jam have fully failed to find any clues to their missing comrade, been accidentally absorbed by a school party and given a gang of alien predators disguised as bullying older kids a real shock. On the run from unimaginable retaliation, they land at the quiet rear enclosure just as the baby elephant in the box – still traumatised by memories of the poachers who killed the herd adults – loses all control and attacks the labouring oafs…

Lost in his own worlds, Michael spies on the events and resolves to liberate the prisoner in the crate at all costs…

That night, Michael’s mum gets home and quickly pierces the subterfuges her son had constructed to appear to be at home and in bed. Soon the police are searching for a missing child, but shabby old Happy Land is not their first port of call…

Visually inventive and astoundingly vivid – even in monochrome – whilst owing a huge inspirational debt to Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, the saga unfolds as pirates, sea-monsters, alien invaders and wizards compete with real world rogues and villains and all the powers of unsure memory and unleashed imagination as Michael voyages to an inescapable admission and conclusion over lost Big Nose that almost costs his life…

Funny, scary, thrilling and moving, this is a fabulously enticing young reader’s yarn every lover of comics and storytelling should take to their hearts.
™ & © 2010 Diana Thung. All rights reserved.

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The Baker Street Peculiars


By Roger Langridge, Andrew Hirsh & Fred Stresing (KaBOOM!)
ISBN: 978-1-60886-928-2 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-61398-599-1

Roger Langridge is a very talented gentleman with a uniquely beguiling way of telling stories. He has mastered every aspect of the comics profession from lettering (Dr. Who) to writing (Thor: The Mighty Avenger) to illustration (Knuckles the Malevolent Nun, Zoot!). When combining his gifts – as Fred the Clown, Popeye, Abigail and the Snowman – the approbation, accolades and glittering prizes such as Eisner and Harvey Awards can’t come fast enough.

He is also a bloody genius at making folk laugh…

The Baker Street Peculiars started life as an all-ages comicbook miniseries before being gathered in a titanic detective tome and craftily references a glittering reservoir of cool concepts encompassing the mythology of Sherlock Holmes, 1930s London, cosy crime mysteries, kid gangs and rampaging monster movies. Moreover, thanks to Langridge’s keen ear for idiom and slang, every page resonates with hilarious dialogue any lover of old films or British sitcoms will find themselves helplessly chortling over – if not actually joining in with…

Blimey, Guv’ner!

Illustrated by Andy Hirsch (Science Comics: Dogs, Varmints, Adventure Time, Regular Show) and coloured by the inestimable Fred Stresing, ‘The Case of the Cockney Golem’ opens in foggy old London Town circa 1933, currently enduring an odd spot of bother. Exceedingly odd…

‘A Beast in Baker Street’ reveals that famous landmark statues are going missing. Now, with one of the bronze lions in Trafalgar Square coming to life and bolting away down Charing Cross Road – unlike the crowds rushing about in panic – three wayward tykes (and a dog) chase after it. Soon they are all embroiled in the story of a lifetime… perhaps several lifetimes…

Tailor’s granddaughter Molly Rosenberg, orphan street thief Rajani Malakar and neglected filthy rich posh-boy Humphrey Fforbes-Davenport (and his canine valet Wellington) are all out long after bedtime and keen on a spot of adventure. Having individually chanced upon the commotion, they spontaneously unite to doggedly track the animated absconder to Baker Street where they enjoy a chance encounter with a legendary investigator…

Molly is especially intrigued: she’s read every exploit of the famous consulting detective. When he roundly rubbishes their claim of moving statues – and claims to be too busy with other cases – she angrily suggests that they act as his assistants. The detective quite quickly complies, but only to conceal an incredible secret not even his fanciful new deputies could ever imagine…

As Molly’s grandpa suffers another visit from thugs running an extortion racket for the nefarious Chippy Kipper – “the Pearly King of Brick Lane” – the kids’ bizarre quest continues in ‘The Lion, the Lord and the Landlady’ after the junior sleuths meet up at 221B Baker Street. Although consoled with a fine meal, they are disappointed to find their hoped-for mentor absent.

Receiving further instructions from the great detective’s elderly cook Mrs. Hudson, the youthful team learn that Mr Holmes believes the statues are simply being stolen and that he wishes the dauntless children to post guard on Boadicea at Westminster Bridge and Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square…

Their sentinel duties bear strange fruit, however, as East End thugs perform a strange and dangerous ritual and the beloved tourist attractions come to menacing life. As the kids follow the ambulatory landmarks back to Kipper’s hideout, Molly strives to recall a story her grandfather used to tell her: a fable about a Rabbi in old Prague who used a scroll to bring a giant avenging clay statue to life…

As the colossal Chippy shares his own unique origins with his cohort of thugs and sculptures, the youngsters sneak in. Swifty captured and stuck in a dungeon, they can only watch in horror as Kipper uses ancient magic to make a new kind of monster. ‘The Old, Hard Cell’ brings the plot to a bubbling boil as the terrified tykes swallow simmering resentments and work together. Even as they escape their current predicament, elsewhere, other, more mature truth-seekers are compelled to change their stubbornly-held opinions…

Someone else with a keen eye and suspicious mind is enterprising lady journalist Hetty Jones of The Mirror. Her own patient, diligent enquiries have brought her to Baker Street in time to collaborate with the aged detective-in-charge. With all eventualities except the impossible exhausted, the grown-ups must accept the truth and soon track down the missing lion. It’s probably too late, however, as an army of animated marble and bronze artefacts rampage through London towards the East End, with only three nippers (and a dog) ready to confront them…

With Chippy Kipper in the vanguard, the chilling regiment invades Molly’s home turf but ‘The Battle of Brick Lane’ is no one-sided affair. One plucky minor has remembered the secret of the Rabbi’s Golem and conceived a daring stratagem to immobilise the monstrous invaders. As for Kipper’s human thugs, they’ve severely underestimated the solidarity of hundreds of poor-but-honest folk pushed just a bit too far, one time too many…

When the dust settles, Sherlock Holmes has one last surprise for his squad of juvenile surrogates…

Adding to the charm and cheer is a cover-&-variants gallery by Hirsch & Hannah Christenson, sketch and design feature ‘Meet the Peculiars’ and a delirious sequence of all-Langridge strips starring his unique interpretation of the Great Detective Himself in ‘The Peculiar Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’.

Reverently refencing and spoofing beloved old films and our oh-so-idiosyncratic manners and parlance with a loving ear for an incongruous laugh, The Baker Street Peculiars is a sheer triumph of spooky whimsy, reinventing what was great about classic British storytelling. Fast, funny, slyly witty and with plenty of twists, it is an absolute delight from start to finish and another sublime example of comics at its most welcoming.
™ & © 2016 Roger Langridge & Andrew Hirsch All rights reserved.